Planning on Installing a Woodstove?

Maybe you need some heat for those dreary rainy days or those cooler winter temperatures. Or sometimes you’re going for that nice ambient fire burning in the background in your living room. There isn’t another type of heating appliance that doubles as cooking device unless you include your firepit! So if you’re thinking of installing a woodstove then read on.

According to the Hearth, Patio, & Barbecue Association, a quality brand name wood stove will cost about $3,000-$4,200, including the stovepipe and installation. On the bright side a woodstove will add a few thousand to your asking price if you were to sell your home.

There are many great brands out there such as the Sedore 3000 an old-fashioned wood stove that burns wood, wood pellets and even alternate fuels like corn. A woodstove that is becoming popular is the Woodstock Soapstone Ideal Steel Hybrid stove, which won the very competitive Wood Stove Decathlon in 2013. It has some interesting features including gear-shaped cooktop surfaces and ornamental side panels.

While I am sure that you’ll pick the right woodstove for your needs, before you’re ready to buy, you should determine the exact location of your new woodstove for installation purposes. The first thing that you’ll have to get installed if you don’t have one already, is a chimney to vent the smoke. Either a sound masonry chimney or a factory produced UL approved Stainless Steel Class “A” Insulated Chimney will do the job correctly.

If you have a chimney but haven’t used it in a few years or you are new to the home, you should get your chimney inspected. It’s important that your chimney is insulated and that it has the proper clearances to combustible (wood framing, siding, etc.)

A skilled and qualified professional chimney cleaner can fix most of the problems with your current chimney such as those mentioned in the previous paragraph. A UL approved stainless steel liner system can be installed which provides additional safety and improves draft and is easier to clean. The flue liner of the chimney should be the same size than the stovepipe size and it should be a cast in place type or built with materials that allow it to expand.

If you get a proper chimney inspection and your chimney is in fine working order then you’re all set to start planning the installation of your woodstove.

You can extend a 5 foot flexible stainless steel tube (the minimum length) from your stove or insert and running it up through the damper connecting it into the first flue tile.

If you have an unlined chimney, line the entire height of the chimney with stainless steel pipe the same size as the flue collar which is about 6 feet on your stove. It’s important that the area below the fireplace is sealed with a high temperature silicone in order to prevent smoke from entering the home.

The next that you’ll have to do is make a connection from a free standing stove to the metal or masonry chimney. There are two kinds of Stovepipe, Single Wall (one layer) and Close Clearance (two walls) and each has its unique characteristics and will require different installation procedures.

You’ll also have to consider floor and wall protection. Some of the approved materials are concrete slab (bare or with tile or brick installed), pre-fab UL approved stove boards and mats and ceramic tile, marble or slate installed on top of UL Listed cement underlayment board. Next up, you’ll have to install approved non-combustible protection on the wall. The wall can be brick, stone, cement board or a UL approved stove shield, usually mounted on spacers.

Once you’ve take care of all of the preliminaries, all you have to do is pick out your woodstove and connect. And the best part of all, light your first fire on your new woodstove.